A Quiet Evening
by Mytimesink
Summary: This is my idea of a quiet evening my Tali puts together for my Shepard. I've been reading a lot of Mass Effect Fanfiction, so I thought that I would give some back.


"There we go. It looks like everything is perfect."

"Tali, the Commander has returned. The decontamination sequence is in progress."

"Thanks Edi." I had to hurry. Everything was going according to plan. I moved to the elevator and triggered my immune-booster as I waited out the ride to the second deck. I rushed to the airlock near the cockpit, barely noticing the crew as I passed them. The airlock began opening as soon as I got there, revealing an impatient Commander tapping his foot repeatedly. I felt the smile come across my face as I watched the door open and saw his face light up with a smile as he saw me. "Hello Captain. It's good to see you." Rather than wait for his answer I walked forward and put my arms around him in a hug.

"It's nice to see you too. I take it you missed me?"

I felt his arms slide around me as he returned the hug. As he squeezed I started to pull back and slipped my arm through his. "Of course I missed you." I answered his question as I began leading him toward the elevator. "Let's go up to our room."

As we entered the elevator I watched him hit the button for the Captain's cabin. It's more of our cabin these days. I haven't used the sleeping pod for a couple of weeks and everything I own on the Normandy is in there. I spend more time in there than anywhere else on the Normandy, besides engineering of course.

"So Tali, did you have a good day?"

"I had a wonderful day Brian, how about you?"

"It was alright. I managed to get contact information on some STG agents. They should be able to help us find some information on the Shadow Broker for Liara. Well, here we are. So what do you need?" He asked as the elevator door slid open. I gently pushed him forward into the cabin itself. "I had planned on grabbing a bite to eat. I haven't had anything since breakfast."

"We'll get food in just a minute I have a surprise for you." I loved the way his eyebrows shot up in interest as he switched his gaze from me toward our room. "Get in there." With those words I pushed him the rest of the way into the room. The doors opened as he approached and I followed into the room where I began to truly take in the view I'd created for the night.

The light sources around the room had been dimmed creating an ambient glow. The soft glow of light emanating from the fish tank illuminated a table that had been placed next to the tank with a vase full of assorted purple and teal flowers. Next to the vase sat a tall bottle of purified water flanked by two wine glasses. There were two covered dishes on the table along with a spoon for each dish. I stepped forward and with a quickly tapped a command into the console bringing up the sounds of music throughout the cabin.

I watched the look on his face and when he didn't say anything I was prompted to nervously ask, "Do you like it? I thought that I could try to give you a normal dinner date for once rather than me eating my paste while you dined in the mess hall." Without his immediate response I felt the first tingles of nervousness in me as I began to wring my hands in front of me. "I just thought that since it's difficult for us to do many human relationship things we could try something close to one for once. I thought that it would be different and exciting and a nice change of pace, and I need to stop talking but you haven't said anything and I'm nervous, and afraid that you don't like the idea of dinner plans."

He grabbed my hands steadying them and placed his forehead on the suit's visor and said "I love the idea and there was no need for you to wonder if I wouldn't. It will be a perfect way to end the day. I was just surprised at how nice the place looks. Have you taken your booster?"

In response I lifted my hands up to the visor and pulled it away from my face before leaning forward giving him a kiss which turned into several.

I forced myself to step back and remove the rest of the helmet, carefully placing it on the table next to our terminal. Turning back to him I explained about the immune-booster. "I'm using a different booster tonight coupled with some newer antibiotics. I should be able to be out of the suit for the whole night but, the longer duration reduces the strength. Anyway, you should get out of that armor and into something suitable for dinner." I smiled as he walked to his closest and began removing the pieces of his armor. I decided to make myself look presentable as well and began sealing off my torso as I removed the arms of my suit. After I had the arms removed I adjusted the fabric of my hood, playing with the idea of leaving it up, covering most of my head but quickly decided against it. I thought about removing more of the suit, but that probably wouldn't be prudent with the weaker immune booster running through my system. The adapting process was making these out of suit experiences less dangerous but I wasn't fully adapted yet. I turned back to my captain and saw that he had changed into his normal ship attire, the Cerberus logo still emblazoned on the shoulder of the short sleeve shirt.

"It's nice to see you again, beautiful." He walked forward and we kissed again before he led me to the table. He took his seat after he'd pulled mine out and watched as I poured us both a glass of the water. Looking at the now uncovered food before him, I could tell that he only had one question on his mind. "So Tali, what is this? It smells delicious."

"Try it. It is an old quarian recipe I found on the Ethernet. I made it today with some help from Gardner, Ken, and Gabby. Do you like it?" I watched anxiously as he took his first bite. After he finished the first bite he answered me with a grin before quickly taking a second bite. I then took my first bite. It tasted amazing, just like it had on the Fleet those long years ago.

"It is like a stew. I can see how Gardner might have helped, but how did Ken and Gabby help with the meal? I didn't think either of them truly knew how to cook.

"Well when I went out to the wards today to find the ingredients I ran into Ken and Gabby doing some window shopping. After they asked I told them about my plan and they decided to help out. We stopped at the Zakera Café in the wards where you bought the food for Gardner. You remember the shop, it's owned by that turian who claims to sell the best food on the whole citadel. When we got there I picked out all the ingredients the recipe needed and Ken looked up the levo equivalent spices for the dextro ones I need. After that we came back and Gabby helped me start everything while Gardner was away. He was out for a walk around the wards but when he came back he chased us away from the kitchen and finished up the meal. Mainly at that point it was just keeping everything hot, but he insisted that Gabby and I get let him finish so we could bring up this table and go find some flowers. We found these at a souvenir shop. They look similar to flowers that were found on the Homeworld. I hope you don't mind but they're artificial so they don't introduce new contaminants into the air or into my system."

"I don't mind the artificial flowers at all, and these are beautiful. I love the way you matched our favorite colors. This stew is really good. It really does sound like you had a busy day."

"What about your day? You said you had contact information for STG agents who would help us find the Shadow Broker. Do you think he'll know something we don't about the Reapers?"

"He might. The real reason is for Liara though. I want to help her get past whatever happened to her, while she was, helping, me."

The rest of the meal passed with light conversation ranging from thoughts on the crew to ways to improve the drive core's performance. When we had both finished eating, we started to clean up until I noticed Brian just staring into space. He had his head cocked to one side listening to the music. I set down the last remnants of the meal and then wrapped my arms around him from behind and leaned into him. "I found the music on the extranet. I picked out several old quarian tunes and mixed in some human ones I found."

"I know this one. I can't recall the name, but my mother used to listen to this all the time. She said it reminded her of my father. It's a really old tune." He then turned in my arms and looked at me. "May I have this dance?"

I couldn't help but giggle when he stepped back and began to twirl me. To my astonishment, he could dance decently. "I've never seen you dance well before."

"I can't really dance well to anything that would be played in a club, but I know a few steps that come in handy every now and then." The calm music played out as we danced, swaying back in forth in a slow rhythm. Sadly, the song ended and he just looked at me and breathlessly laughed. "Thanks Tali, this has been a wonderful date. I have had an amazing time."

"It's not over yet. Gabby was telling me about this. She said dates oftentimes involve a dinner and a vid, so we've had dinner and now we watch a vid. I picked out one I think we'll like. It's about the captain of this council ship that is sent out to explore an unknown section of the galaxy. The vid apparently picks up just as the crew reaches a new cluster after their journey. It's supposed to be pretty good. It came out about a year ago."

"It sounds wonderful. You planned this whole evening didn't you?"

"Of course I had a plan. While keeping the ship running properly takes time, it doesn't take all my time that's not spent with you. Either way, there are just things you make time for." With that I walked over to the terminal and brought up the vid. We curled up on the couch together just enjoying the moment before the vid began. The lights in the room dimmed even further and the glass on the fish tank became opaque so the movement of the fish behind wouldn't interfere with the vid.

The vid ended a few hours later and we were still curled up on the couch. We stood and stretched before going about our bedtime rituals. He moved to the bathroom for a toothbrush, while I pulled a brush out of one of my pockets in the suit. It was a relic that I'd kept from before my mom died, when we had real food on the Fleet. I'd kept it with me all these years for sentimental value, and the occasional non-paste meal. I cleaned my teeth as best I could with the brush before climbing into bed to wait on my captain. He finished his ritual with a quick flip of the light switch sending the cabin into darkness except for starlight entering through the window. His outline was illuminated as he crawled into bed beside me.

Lying next to each other we adjusted ourselves till we were comfortable. The bed itself was always comfortable, but there was something wonderful about not having to set an alarm to wake up in a few short hours and return to my suit. I pulled closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder when he said "I had a really good night Tali. Thank you. Next time we have some free time I'll have to take you out."

"I'm glad you liked it. I'll look forward to you taking me out sometime. But I am really happy that you enjoyed yourself tonight."

"Night, I love you."

"Good night, I love you too." I replied, before my breathing fell into a rhythm with his as I drifted off into a deep, restful sleep.


End file.
